Butchers and bakers with stars in their pies!

Judges celebrating the end of judging day for this years World Championship Scotch Pie Awards in Dunfermline, Scotland, where 100 contestant bakers and butchers entered 500 pies to be judged.

Debbie Clarke

Published:12:24Thursday 10 November 2016

Share this article

All eyes were on the pies as around 100 bakers and butchers hoped to prove they had the upper crust as judging began for the 18th World Championship Scotch Pie Awards.

Entrants from across the country, including one who came all the way from America, attended the one-day event in Dunfermline yesterday (Wednesday).

The Rt Honourable Donald Wilson, Lord Provost of the City of Edinburgh, performed his pie duties perfectly as he helped to assess the appearance, quality, consistency and taste of 500 of the best pies in the land.

And waiting in the wings was the first ever international entrant to the event.

Kevin Haggard, owner of Sunblest Foods in Santa Maria, California travelled all the way to Fife to put his pies up against the best Scotland has to offer.

Kevin said: “I am so pleased to be here and to have the opportunity to see how my Scotch Pies and football pies measure up against the world’s best, this is a dream come true for me.

“I opened up my bakery Seattle in 1988 when I was 28 years old so it’s still a young business. Sunblest is a bakery that makes a line of traditional meat pies and I’m only one of a few bakers in the US that makes a Scottish meat pie.”

This year also saw the introduction of celebrity judges to judge the football pie category. Former Celtic player Simon Donnelly and Partick Thistle manager and SPFL Board Member Ian Maxwell came together with professional judges to pick the best pies and savouries sold at a football match in Scotland.

David Beattie, chairman of Patrick Thistle, said: “It’s important to remember that managers and players are customers too and this gives us the opportunity to celebrate the great pies that are served in grounds across Scotland.”

By popular demand, World Championship Scotch Pie Awards has introduced a new category for macaroni pies.

Ian Nelson, head judge said: “The macaroni pie is a unique Scottish product and we want to recognise this and have created a category all of its own.”

He added: “The World Championship Scotch Pie Awards is the only competition of its kind recognising excellence in the preparation of a perfect pie.”

The winner will be announced at a prestigious luncheon on January 11, 2017 at the Westerwood Hotel, Cumbernauld.